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Becoming by Michelle Obama
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Becoming (edition 2018)

by Michelle Obama (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8,4303401,015 (4.44)361
Biography & Autobiography. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
 
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â?˘ WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY â?˘ OPRAHâ??S BOOK CLUB PICK â?˘ NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER â?˘ ONE OF ESSENCEâ??S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of Americaâ??the first African American to serve in that roleâ??she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
 
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped herâ??from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the worldâ??s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived itâ??in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectationsâ??and who
… (more)
Member:MarleneMacke
Title:Becoming
Authors:Michelle Obama (Author)
Info:Crown Publishing Group (2018), Edition: 1st Edition, 448 pages
Collections:Read but unowned
Rating:*****
Tags:Biography American

Work Information

Becoming by Michelle Obama (Author)

  1. 31
    A White House diary by Lady Bird Johnson (Elizabeth.Macyshyn)
    Elizabeth.Macyshyn: First Lady autobiographies are fascinating, after enjoying Becoming, try the one that started the trend.
  2. 20
    Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage by Christopher Andersen (Cammie.m)
    Cammie.m: This book gives an insight to the Obama’s life, love, marriage, and parenthood. It also discusses the trials and tribulations of being the President of the a United States of America. This book is a wonderful read!
  3. 32
    Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (TheLittlePhrase)
  4. 10
    I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (lottpoet)
    lottpoet: similar sense of doing what needs doing, of her deeds being, not extraordinary, but a part of ordinary humanness
  5. 10
    Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America by M. Joycelyn Elders (Ibuddy66)
  6. 22
    Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (JuliaMaria)
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» See also 361 mentions

English (322)  German (4)  Italian (3)  French (2)  Finnish (2)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Hungarian (1)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (337)
Showing 1-5 of 322 (next | show all)
It is a warm, powerful, and inspirational chronicle by the former First Lady of the United States. Perfection. ( )
  Huba.Library | Feb 22, 2024 |
Enlightening book from a very intelligent, humble, relatable, reflective woman about what it's like to be at the center of the political world as First Lady while also trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy as a parent, wife and professional. Lengthy, well-written and chock full of anecdotes about the Obama family. ( )
  eg4209 | Jan 27, 2024 |
[b:Becoming|38746485|Becoming|Michelle Obama|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528206996l/38746485._SY75_.jpg|60334006]
I picked this book up way behind the curve. However, I can not tell you how much I enjoyed it. In Becoming, First Lady Michelle Obama, not only gives us a detailed look into the night of the November 4th, 2008 Presidential election, but she steps back in time after the introduction and gives us layers of her personal life from childhood to puberty and from puberty to adulthood. We walk the blocks of Euclid Avenue on the Southside of Chicago. We meet her parents Marian and Fraser Robinson, and her elder brother Craig, as well as extended family members, like her Uncle “Southside,” who introduces Michelle to jazz and Motown artists such as, Stevie Wonder. We would return to Michelle’s small house that was shared with her great Aunt who taught her piano. We would feel Michelle’s angsts from her first piano recital to her big decision to fight to get into Princeton.

Early on, we could tell that the young Michelle Robinson, who was filled with curious questions, would grow up to be an intelligent and independent woman. Without question, you could foresee her breaking White House traditions as First Lady, not disrespectfully, but in a way that awakened a new dawn and era. She gives women who are trying to live their dreams hope that dreams are possible. That you can fall in love have a job and be successful all with a smile on your face.

Socially, it seems Michelle chose her friends and boyfriends as wisely as she chose her career. She never lowered her standards. Her every move seemed calculated and driven by a checklist until she met Barack Obama. Obama was a man who helped Michelle to relax her shoulders, have some ice cream, and breathe and appreciate the spontaneity of life. He also helped her to find her true passion in order to discover genuine happiness.

In this book, Michelle lays out a plate of honesty that spills over human imperfections that we all contend with on the day-to-day basis. She didn't hide her flaws or pretend to be someone she is not. Thus, my favorite quote is: “Barack and I told our stories and shared our stories because too often people focus on stats. Stats do not tell us who people are.” It is therefore not surprising that Michelle and Barack Obama won the 2018 Most Admired People, despite not being in office anymore. People feel connected to public figures who are honest, compassionate, forgiving, and sincere.

I hope this book shows much more many people you can become anything you want as long as you do it 100% for yourself. Five starts across the board.
( )
  b00kdarling87 | Jan 7, 2024 |
I’m not generally a memoir-reader, but this book may have kindled a new phase. An interesting view of the world from both a place of power and of generational disempowerment, Becoming is a reminder of why I want to go into public service. It’s a treatise on maintaining forward-motion that definitely hits you over the head with its message, but provides an equal and opposite gut-punch of earnest sincerity. A must-read. ( )
  Elianaclaire | Jan 3, 2024 |
Michelle Obama is a treasure, but as she explicitly says several times, do not expect her to run for office: she has a distaste for the nastiness and threats to personal safety that come from it. It feels hyperbolic to say Michelle is a woman of grace, but this is a woman who is aware of her environment as she tells her biography, and the systemic pressures around her throughout life. To maintain the drive and poise to go from a school system suffering from white flight to the Ivy Leagues, and then onto the world stage? It takes a strong person with support systems. Truly an inspiration for doing good by our community.

I 'read' through the audiobook version because it is narrated by Michelle, and I reckon the only way to get closer to the author's voice/headspace is to listen to her actually say it. It took me a while to finish this because while I do have a decent sized commute to work, I also tend to listen to podcasts half the time so it took a while.

Hooooboy just took a look at one star ratings out of curiosity and it does seem to be mostly people who didn't read the book and want to broadcast opinions without basis. AND/OR: people who don't seem to recognize the systemic circumstances that make her life story so interesting. ( )
  Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 322 (next | show all)
The summary of Obama’s White House initiatives relies on promotional language and well-worn anecdotes, and the book’s final pages are just a shade away from an overt advertisement for the Obama Foundation. The memoir’s “bombshell” revelations, which the media has projected as revelations of the female condition writ large—a discussion of Obama’s use of fertility treatment to conceive her daughters, and of a period of her marriage in which “frustrations began to rear up often and intensely”—belie how much the rest of the text withholds.
 
I suspect that some of Becoming’s power lies in the ways it employs the techniques of a novel more than those of a typical political memoir—in its honesty about human nature and ambivalence, yes, but also in its colorful and idiosyncratic details ... in its willingness to let anecdotes speak for themselves rather than pedantically spelling out their lessons.
 
Becoming is frequently funny, sometimes indignant or enraged, and when Michelle describes her father’s early death from multiple sclerosis it turns rawly emotional.
added by g33kgrrl | editThe Guardian, Peter Conrad (Nov 18, 2018)
 
But despite how close we get to her voice here, it’s never quite close enough. She lets us into all kinds of memories, including tender recollections, romantic dates, and triumphant moments on the campaign trail. But for all her candidness, there is still a veil of privacy around the inner workings of this reluctant public figure. She draws the reader in, but pauses at arm’s length. Maybe this is all we can expect, in text, from this woman with so much presence. As she says herself, she’s more of a hugger.
added by g33kgrrl | editVanity Fair, Sonia Saraiya (Nov 15, 2018)
 
Even if Becoming is not always interesting, it is much more interesting than it needed to be to qualify as a successful first lady memoir. And as an example of how to walk the tightrope — how to seem charming but not like an intellectual lightweight; how to get things done without seeming threatening; how to do all of the impossible things we demand of women in general, of first ladies in particular, and of the first black first lady as an absolute — Becoming is a straight-up master class.
added by g33kgrrl | editVox, Constance Grady (Nov 13, 2018)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Obama, MichelleAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Obama, MichelleNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rekiaro, IlkkaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Svensson, ManneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vries, Willemijn deNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
To all the people who have helped me become:

the folks who raised me---Fraser, Marian, Craig,
and my vast extended family,

my circle of strong women, who always lift me up,

my loyal and dedicated staff, who continue to make me proud.
To the loves of my life:

Malia and Sasha, my two most precious peas,
who are my reason for being,

and finally, Barack, who always promised me an interesting journey.
First words
When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple. (Preface)
Quotations
Grief and resilience live together.
I spent much of my childhood listening to the sound of striving.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Biography & Autobiography. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
 
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â?˘ WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY â?˘ OPRAHâ??S BOOK CLUB PICK â?˘ NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER â?˘ ONE OF ESSENCEâ??S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of Americaâ??the first African American to serve in that roleâ??she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
 
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped herâ??from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the worldâ??s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived itâ??in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectationsâ??and who

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